Sunday, November 1, 2015

It all started with Just Mercy, a book that gives eloquent and humanizing voice to the agonizing injustices perpetrated by our criminal justice system against the black population of the United States.

(lawyer #1)

It made me weep and it made me ashamed of my inattention. And I developed a huge crush on the author. And the author's mother. I started to read every book I could get my hands on about the latest institutional means by which the lives of people whose outward appearance speaks of African ancestry are destroyed in our nation. Street Poison, Slavery By Another Name, Between the World and Me, and The New Jim Crow-- there are so many people lending their experience and research to the cause of educating those willing to learn about the crimes of mass incarceration.

(lawyer #2)

I am hollowed out, humbled, and fumbling to identify and marshall the power I have to effect change.